


You’re Okay Kid

by Phoenix_is_creative



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Parent Sam | Awesamdude, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Sam | Awesamdude, Traumatized Tommyinnit (Video Blogging RPF), Warden Sam | Awesamdude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29761503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix_is_creative/pseuds/Phoenix_is_creative
Summary: Tommy has been locked in the prison cell with his past abuser for almost seven days and Sam doesn’t know what the kid will be like when he walks out.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 146





	You’re Okay Kid

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off of the season two scene in Stranger Things where Mike fights with Hopper.
> 
> TW: Possible mentions of panic attacks and past abuse (nothing severe)

The lava lake rose slowly with the flick of a switch, bubbling and popping, sweltering as always. Sam shielded his face from the intense heat, thankful that he would never have to be in Dream’s position. Tommy though... 

A week had passed by, slowly and surely. Sam had managed to fix the damage caused, but he knew that there was damage to other places that could never be healed again. His stomach had twisted painfully when he realized that he would have to put the prison on lockdown. That first night Sam had listened for hours as Tommy screamed desperately for him, until his voice had finally given out and he simply gave up.

Sam watched with careful eyes as the lava that separated them drained away, revealing the two boys that were trapped inside. One in a familiar orange jumpsuit leaned against the wall, knees tucked to his chest, the faintest hint of a smirk on his face. The other stood right next to the edge of the cell, hair mussed as always, his arms crossed protectively over his chest. Although it would look like any other visit Tommy had had with Dream, there was an unspoken truth that something was clearly off.

“I’m sending the platform over to you, Tommy,” he called in a loud enough voice so that Tommy could hear him over the pops of the lava bubbles below.

The boy shifted on his feet as the stone bridge neared him. Sam couldn’t help but frown at the new mannerism Tommy had seemed to pick up. When the platform arrived, he glanced up at Sam. He nodded his approval, but even still Tommy looked back at Dream. It wasn’t until Dream had nodded and waved him away with a flick of his wrist that Tommy stepped onto the platform.

Sam’s stomach dropped at the sight of the younger boy. He was covered in burns, he quickly noticed, his cheek tinged red and his hands scarred and chapped. There were dark crescents under his eyes, and above all he just seemed so distant. He wasn’t the Tommy he’d grown so fond of, and it was entirely his fault.

How had he not noticed the state he was in on the security cameras? He had tried his best to monitor Dream while Tommy was in there, but the microphones must’ve been knocked out in the explosions because whenever he tried to turn up the volume all he heard was white noise. Either way, he should’ve picked up on Tommy’s behavioral changes. Sam thought he knew Tommy like the back of his hand…

The kid watched as the lava rose once again and Dream disappeared behind it. Tommy turned to him, the expression on his face unreadable. “We should get going,” Sam said quietly, as if not to startle an injured animal. Tommy did not wait to be guided through the maze, but instead silently walked ahead, waiting for Sam to open passages and to douse him in potions.

Sam attempted conversation once or twice, but Tommy would only shrug or nod. It was something that left him with an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. This shell of a kid he once knew walked around as if he were a ghost, living without living, seeing without seeing.

I can’t reach you, Sam thought, Why can’t I reach you?

It wasn’t until they had made it to the front of the prison that Sam stopped him. Tommy walked over to his locker door, looking at Sam expectantly. “I’m not letting you get your stuff until we talk,” Sam said.

Tommy laughed at first, but when Sam didn’t move from his spot against the wall his laughter quickly died out, replaced with a frown and a look in his eyes that he couldn’t quite place. He glanced between the door and Sam, as if trying to decide what he should do. He shifted from foot to foot, his hands fidgeting at his sides. 

“Please just talk to me, Tommy,” Sam pleaded. “I need to know what happened.”

There was a moment that seemed to stretch on for hours where there was complete silence, a quiet so deafening that Sam could swear he could hear the lava popping back in Dream’s prison cell. Tommy would not meet his eyes, refused to in fact. Sam’s heart beat irregularly against his ribcage, because what had been so terrible that made him hesitant to tell?

“You left me.”

Those three words took Sam so off guard that it seemed to throw him off balance. His head snapped up so quickly that he nearly hit it against the back wall. “Wh-What,” he stuttered. 

Tommy’s blue eyes looked up at him from under his lashes, but instead of an incomprehensible gaze he was met with twin flames. “You. Left. Me,” Tommy said through gritted teeth, his voice dangerously low. 

Sam shook his head quickly. “Tommy, it was protocol. It said so in the contracts. I didn’t want to leave you in there, but I had no choice.”

But Tommy didn’t want to listen. Sam took a careful step towards him, then another. The boy’s chest was heaving and for a moment Sam was worried he had been sent into a fit of panic. “I don’t care what protocol says, Sam,” he cried suddenly. “You promised to work as quickly as you could! You promised to get me out of there!”

“I was working to get you out of there, Tommy. I never stopped working.”

Tommy made a wild hand gesture towards the entrance to the door they had come from. “You left me in there with him. It was like exile all over again! But no, you wouldn’t understand that because you don’t know what it’s like to be trapped with him! None of you know!”

Sam nodded slowly. “I understand that. I know you’ve been through a lot Tommy, and I’m sorry you had to go through it again. That wasn’t at all what I wanted.”

“But you did, didn't you,” he shot back, a noise escaping his lips that sounded close to a strangled laugh. “You all never liked me anyway. You probably had this all planned out.”

It felt like a sucker punch to the gut. “Tommy, you know that’s not true-”

“How would I know that, Sam? How would I know?”

He didn’t know why he was trying so hard. He could’ve just let Tommy take his stuff and leave, but yet he watched as this kid deteriorated piece by piece in front of him, and who was going to be the one to put him back together? Wilbur was gone, Techno didn’t talk to any of them, and Phil had decided to pick favorites instead of making sure that all of his children were okay. He was not going to let this kid walk away like this whether he liked it or not.

“Tommy,” he said in the softest voice he could manage. “You can trust me.”

He just laughed. Laughed and laughed, and Sam wondered if this broken child had finally lost it. “Trust you? How can I trust you when you all exiled me? When you worked alongside Dream, when you built this prison on his command? None of you are trustworthy. The only person I can trust is myself.”

And with that, Sam’s heart shattered. “Tommy,” he began, but he knew that there was not much else he could say. “I’m sorry.”

Tommy’s eyes seemed to glow with pure hatred, pure disgust and anger. It was like the blue had retreated, replaced by a searing orange light that seemed to burn a hole through Sam’s chest. “You’re sorry,” he parroted, a smile on his face. “You’re sorry?”

“I am,” he nodded, holding a hand out to Tommy. “It’s gonna be okay Tommy.”

He shook his head so fast that Sam was worried he would hurt his neck. “No, nothing about this is okay. Nothing about this is okay, Sam!”

Tommy shoved Sam’s chest, sending him stumbling a bit. “Easy kid,” Sam warned, but he didn’t stop Tommy as he shoved him again and again, hitting his scarred fists against him. 

“You stupid, weak, pathetic piece of shit,” he yelled, and Sam iushed down every protest and defensive word that he was tempted to say. “You’re a traitor and a fraud, and a liar. A liar- liar-”

Sam listened as Tommy’s screams dissolved into broken sobs, and immediately he found himself wrapping his arms around the smaller boy no matter how much he fought against him. “Liar… Liar…” 

Sam held him tightly to his chest, resting his chin against the top of the other’s head as he broke out into painful sobs. “You’re okay. You’re okay kid. You’re okay,” he repeated over and over like a mantra. He held him until Tommy’s legs gave out and he crumpled to the floor, and even then Sam sat down with him and pulled him close. “You’re okay Tommy. I’ve got you.”

“I’m so fucking tired Dream,” he whispered, his voice a trembling mess. 

Sam felt like he had been shot with an arrow straight through his heart. Tommy had done so many things that were wrong, so many things that had hurt so many people, but just like some of the others on the server he was still a kid. Naive and young, just like many of them were.

“Dream’s not here, Tommy,” he reminded him, running a careful hand through his hair. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. Never again.”

Whether he could keep that promise, he wasn’t sure. There would always be pain and anger on this server, that’s just how it was. But if he could ease the kid’s mind for a few moments, he would in a heartbeat. Thankfully he seemed to have managed it, because soon the younger’s eyes had fallen closed and his breathing had grown steady.

Sam made sure not to rouse him too much as he got to his feet. Sam carried Tommy out of the prison and back towards L’Manberg. He took the kid back to his house (he was tempted to take him back to his own, but the walk was too long to not accidentally wake him) and placed him in his bed. Sam didn’t leave until he made sure that Tommy was safe and comfortable, but even after that he left a sign telling him that he would bring him his things soon and that he’d be at the prison if he was needed.

To be honest, Sam probably would’ve stayed until Tommy woke up just to make sure everything was fine, but he had to return to the prison and make sure nothing else happened. When he returned, the first thing he did was fix the microphone.

“What did you do,” he asked, his voice cold and distant, the walls he had created to keep himself protected from Dream’s manipulation building up once again.

Dream just smiled, looking directly into the camera lens. “What? Was poor little Tommy scared to talk to you?”

“Just so you know you’re not getting your potato ration tonight, so I hope you can make do.”

Dream made a pouty face. “Come on Sam, don’t be so mean. I’m sure you didn’t treat Tommy like that when he got out.”

“Considering you’re still in there, I think that should’ve been a hint enough to why I treat you all differently.”

He turned off the mic and walked away, and unlike when he first walked in he came out with a blank expression on his face. He stood to his full height, masking the many feelings happening within him. He would let his walls down for Tommy and Tommy only.

Later that day when he was switching shifts with Ant, he found a single sign sitting outside the entrance of the prison:

Thanks.  
-Big T

**Author's Note:**

> When I tell you I was speedrunning to finish this before the next lore stream came out. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
